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Thursday, 7 April 2016

IPOB Rejects ‘Secret Trial’ For Nnamdi Kanu, Others

The
Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) wednesday rejected the ongoing trial of its
leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, saying it had been turned into secret trial.

IPOB’s
position was based on its review of what happened at the high court on Tuesday
in continuation of Kanu’s trial on treasonable felony charges.

In a
statement issued by IPOB’s Head of Media and Publicity, Emma Powerful, the
separatist group said the trial judge, Justice John Tsoho “has now effectively
instituted secret trial because the public were barred from attending the
hearing” (while) only a handful of journalists were permitted to cover
proceedings.
“This is against an earlier court ruling that the trial will be held in the
open.”

The group
pointed out that the trial judge has made it a point of duty to reverse himself
on the ruling earlier made in the course of Kanu’s trial, citing the permission
of the lawyer of the Department of State Service (DSS), who was initially
barred from appearing as prosecution counsel.

According
to IPOB, the DSS lawyer, identified as Idakwo, who was “the lead interrogator”
of Kanu and his co-detainees while in DSS, has now “surprisingly” been allowed
to join the prosecuting team headed by Mr. Mohammed Labaran.

“The DSS
is now the arresting agency; they detain, they interrogate, they investigate
and now they are also running the prosecution in a court of law for the Office
of the Attorney General of the Federation through the Office of the Director of
Public Prosecution,” IPOB lamented.

The
pro-Biafra organisation insisted that “there is nowhere in the civilizsed world
that such levels of criminal absurdity in the dispensation of justice is
allowed to obtain,” adding that “it is worth noting that the same DSS are the
ones stopping the public from entering the court room contrary to the ruling of
this same Justice Tsoho.”
IPOB noted that the trial judge “has now been stumbling from one calamitous
mistake to another by turning against his own ruling thereby making “so many
mistakes in his quest to please his master, President Buhari, that chose him
for this hatchet job.”

Meanwhile
IPOB has reiterated that it has officially dropped Mr. Vincent Obetta as the
lead counsel in the defence team representing the director of Radio Biafra and
his co-accused in the treason trial.

A
statement dated April 4, 2016, signed by the head directorate of state affairs,
Mazi Uchenna Asiegbu said that IPOB “terminated the services of Vincent Obetta
on 19th January 19, 2016 on the ground that he was no longer capable of
handling such high profile matter and that his conduct was unbecoming of a professional
legal practitioner.”

In his
place Chief Chuks Muoma, SAN, was named as the lead counsel in the team of 17
lawyers with Ifeanyi Ejiofor as the lead attorney to Kanu, the IPOB leader.